Heeding the wrong voice

“...and Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” - Genesis 16v2

How Abram and Sarai must have yearned to see God work! God had promised Abram that their descendants would number greater than the grains of sand or the stars in the heavens. Ten years later nothing had happened, not even one child. Sarai had had enough. Custom allowed her to use a servant as a surrogate mother so she advised Abram to go to Hagar to bear a child for her. Sarai took matters into her own hands. God wasn't getting the job done so it was time to act!

Although no one knew the consequences at the time the next words we hear are going to have a tragic result result, “...and Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” After all, it only made sense. They had been waiting ten years and nothing had happened. Perhaps this was how God was going to give Abram a great nation. Maybe God needed their help. So, Abram gives in.

When we choose to heed the wrong voice we never know what the result will be. Abram's choice had an impact that is very real today. To find out, let's move on to verses 10-12. Here God is speaking to Hagar after she has been run off by Sarai. “I will multiply your seed exceedingly ... behold, you are with child, and thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael ... and he will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren.”

We may well ask, “What is so amazing about these words?” The answer is simple and self explanatory. Ishmael was the ancestor of the Arabic peoples. God words to Hagar have come true. Her descendants are a great people, so much today that they cannot be numbered. Daily news stories show how they are in conflict with “every man” and every man in conflict with them.

What tragic results from simply heeding the wrong voice. God said - “I will make of you a great nation.” Sarai said, “go in my my maid that I may obtain children by her.” God's way is always the right way.

May we never succumb to heeding the wrong voice, no matter how tempting it might seem!